Keep Your Pearls

21/05/2024

18/05/2024

Fresh flowers replaced my silk ones on our shelves in our piano room.

The wallpaper was here when my grandfather lived in the house; this was his den.

Be thou my vision is my favorite song

The piano figurine was from my m-i-l.

You can see a lot of my theology books and all my Harry Potter books (minus half blood prince which I am reading)

You can see piano books

You can see the Office quotes in the mug

You can seen our cubby dedicated to my love of history and our trips to Virginia.

This is one of my favorite things I decorated in our home. It brings me joy every time I see it. I like to read on the couch that is next to it.

What’s your favorite space in your house and why?

17/05/2024

His mercies are new every morning. Thank You, Lord for a beautiful day!

17/05/2024

I love how my home is coming together. My old home needs some work still but little flavors of our life being added to the decor of our home makes everything feel nice and cozy.

I love the look this old garlic clove jar and wildflowers with my favorite Harry Potter quote sign in the kitchen window. Everything just feels so homey.

What’s the favorite part of your home?

14/05/2024

What are you currently reading? And what is your favorite book?

I am currently reading through the Harry Potter series again! I have enjoyed taking sometime to myself to do something I enjoy.

My favorite book would have to be either Pride and Prejudice or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I love the love story in p&p and the first Harry Potter book is extremely special to me. I remember reading it with my grandfather and it reminds me of him everytime I see the book. He passed two years ago and rereading it and watching the series keeps his memory close to my mind🥺🤍

13/05/2024

NEW POST

As a mother of several small children, trying to keep the house clean is a full time task. It is never completely done, and when you think you have completed one task, you find your children have other ideas of what should be done with that space, and very rarely is it keeping it clean.I'm hoping to...

13/05/2024

Ohhhh I need one of these!

11/05/2024

We’ve been out in the garden today 🪴

What have you done on this beautiful Saturday?!

11/05/2024

In honor of Mother’s Day tomorrow!

How are you planning to spend Mother’s Day? What are some of your favorite parenting books?

I am sure it surprises no one that I spend a lot of time reading on different topics, and one topic I love learning about is motherhood. I have been a mother for 8 years and I continue to grow and change and pray to become the best mother I can be for the glory of God. I have spent a great deal of t...

10/05/2024

Check out my blog post https://wix.to/gNkwN8C

Hello friends! I have missed writing and podcasting but after a difficult miscarriage and a rainbow baby, I needed a break to focus on my family.I hope you all are doing well and I am looking forward to sharing more with you in the coming weeks and months! We have had such a full year of birthday ce...

10/05/2024

I created a homeschool resource! My family has recently really focused on scripture memorization, and in doing that we began writing our scriptures throughout the week at least once! So I thought I would make a resource that would help other families as well, and created the Scripture Copywork Workbook. What a great way to help our children's handwriting skills while also instilling the Word into them!

Jonathan and I are working on other scripture "themed" copy workbooks. What would you like to see? We are working on an Attributes of God Scripture Workbook now, and an ABC of the Gospel book is also in the works, as well as looking into making a board book for littles as well.

I would love to hear your feed back and your ideas concerning this!

AFFORDABLE HOMESCHOOL MARTERIAL

$8.50 for you to purchase this workbook! Please buy, use, and leave a review!

What would YOU like to see up produce next?

Help your kids practice their writing skills as well as practice writing, reading, and memorizing the Bible!

09/03/2024

First blog post in a while. I’d love to podcast again soon, but for now, here’s what I’ve had a moment to write about. I pray you find it edifying.

I am 30 years old. I have spent every one of those years in church. I have seen my fair share of legitimate and illegitimate conflicts. I have even been a part of my fair share of conflicts that fall somewhere on the legitimate-illegitimate spectrum. I have spent the past few years taking a hard loo...

29/12/2022

Christians are like the moon, when we are fully facing the Son, we reflect His glory, but when we turn from the Son, our lives are dark and crater filled.

May we always remember any good in us is from Christ, and any bad in us is from us. When we find our identity in ourselves, much like the moon rotates and changes phases, we find a shaky since of self. When we find our identity in Christ, we can stand firm in knowing that our worth, our goodness, our lives are completely dependent on Him and Him alone.

We are dark and crater filled without Christ.

Turn to Him and reflect His glory, friend.

(Inspired by a Rachel Jankovic talk)

07/12/2022

Have you ever heard people say, “I will just go with that Jesus said, and not the words of men”? Basically meaning they believe only reading the Gospels and not the rest of the Bible.

This is because they have a wrong view of the Bible and/or of whether Jesus is God. The Bible is the Word of God, Jesus IS God, therefore all of the Bible is what Jesus has spoken.

I grew up on a red letter Bible, and there is nothing wrong with them, but I think it allows some people to subconsciously believe that those words are more important because they come from Christ. However, ALL OF THE WORDS OF THE BIBLE CAME FROM CHRIST.

Q 15: Who wrote the Bible?
A 15: Holy men who were taught by the Holy Spirit. (Holy Spirit, also God, therefore God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit spoke every word of the Bible)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
‭‭John‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬

27/10/2022

🎶Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bid’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot;
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt;
Fightings within, and fears without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;
Sight, riches, healing of the mind;
Yes, all I need, in Thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

Just as I am, Thy love unknown
Has broken every barrier down;
Now, to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!🎶

While doing a lyrical breakdown of this song with Jensen, she said, ”and that He calls us to come to Him line (we discussed what bid’st means lol) sounds like ‘when He calls, when He draws we are His forever; He will never let us go.’ We go to Him when He calls because we know Him. Because He saved us.”

So simple, so profound. We go to Him when He calls because His sheep know His voice. Thank You, Jesus!

27/10/2022

While I can almost agree with this, I’m not quite sure how this works. Theology is the study of God. Will God be okay with someone not believing that Jesus is God? Will God be okay with not believing that we are sinners so we do not need a Savior? Will God be okay with the belief that we will become gods one day?

Where is the line drawn? Theology matters. When your theology is right, you should treat people right. Otherwise your “kindness” is sending everyone to hell. Sometimes the most loving thing to say to someone is, “hey that’s not right, we all are sinners and need a Savior.”

Those I have seen sharing this are not talking Calvinist vs Arminian. They aren’t talking about end times. They are (maybe without realizing it) talking about every aspect of theology. This is progressive Christianity and this is dangerous.

Love people, yes. But don’t let “love” keep you from sharing truth, because that’s the least loving thing a person could do.

10/10/2022

We see the death of death in the death of Christ! Praise the Lord!

We’ve been talking a lot at home about the Gospel and we’ve been praying for those in our lives who do not seem to understand the greatness of the Gospel. When we are unable to understand the Gospel, it skews the way we view the entirety of Scripture. When we have a skewed view of Scripture, we have a skewed view of God. When we have a skewed view of God, we have a skewed view of self and our role in salvation.

Please share the Gospel with a loved one today. And please help us pray for those close to us who will not hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

10/10/2022

This is so sad and happening in so many churches. Preach the Gospel! Repent and believe!

08/10/2022

I wonder if Martin Luther was called names for pursuing Biblical truth. Just kidding, we know he was. He was unrelenting to pursue Biblical truth for not only himself, but for every person he came in contact with.

It would’ve been easy for him to say, “well I have right and good theology, everyone else will eventually figure it out, I don’t need to confront those who are teaching and preaching wrongly.” But he didn’t choose the easy route. He chose to pursue truth and to share that truth with everyone, even though it disturbed the peace in which he lived, even though it disturbed friendships, even though it made people mad at him.

He perused truth. He perused Christ. He forsook the world, his friends, his comfort to teach Christ to the world.

We need to stop embracing peace when we need to be standing for truth. We need men of God who will stand and correct those around them who are wrong. We need more reformers, instead of evangellyfish who are more scared of losing their friends, congregation, and status than they are of false teaching.

Stand for truth. At. All. Costs.

08/10/2022

Post like these low key drive me crazy. God is omnipresent. He’s everywhere. He pours His wrath out in hell on unbelievers. You cannot escape His presence. Hell is awful, because God’s grace, love, mercy, and long suffering is not present but His wrath and justice is present. If you are in Christ, CHRIST TOOK THAT LOAD OF WRATH AND JUSTICE FOR YOU, and if you are not, then you will endure the wrath we all justly deserve.

“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭139:7-8‬

Just some late night/very early morning doctrine for you.

03/10/2022

It’s reformation month! I’m so excited to dive back into our Reformation Day material for homeschool!

Learning about how we lost the Gospel, and how brave men and women fought to teach the Bible and not man’s tradition is so inspiring to me. We should be ever reforming back to the Bible. We let so much of our culture cloud the view of Biblical Christianity. We must hold the line. We must hold to God’s Word. We must be ever reforming.

Take me back to the Bible.

These words were penned by the “father of the reformation,” Martin Luther. I’m so thankful that God is our mighty fortress!

19/08/2022

Not a perfect church, but a healthy and Biblical one.

Sometimes it’s hard to find, but it’s worth the search.

Find a church that preaches the whole council of God, in its context.

Don’t settle for emotionalism.

Don’t settle for a good speaker.

Don’t settle for inspirational speaking and singing.

Don’t settle for anything less than Biblical and healthy. You can have all of the things above and be healthy and Biblical, but if you have the other things and don’t have a healthy, biblical church, then it’s not worth anything.

18/08/2022

🌳 In the world of Christian women’s encouragement there is an overwhelming theme of REST, to the point where we imagine anything that smacks of effort on our behalf is of the devil. But it is critically important that Christian women recognize that having a spirit that is at rest in the glorious work Christ did on our behalf is not the same thing as living a life of leisure, relaxation, and ease. Being confident in Christ does not result in a life that looks like a day at the pool without responsibilities.
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🌳 Our rest in Christ’s unbelievable mercy and kindness to us actually motivates a tremendous amount of imitative WORK. It is fatal to start thinking that our work (of any kind!) might motivate His kindness to us. ⁣
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🌳 A read through the New Testament will give you lots and lots of action points - most of which do not sound easy. Can we do them in our own strength? Definitely not. Have we been called to pursue Christ in obedience through His strength? Definitely!⁣
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🌳 As we take up our cross and follow Jesus, showing hospitality without grumbling, respect our husbands, confess our sins, practice good works that have been prepared for us, think of others more highly than ourselves, disciple the nations teaching them to obey, look out for the widows and orphans, do good to those who are of the household of faith, love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us - we can do all these things WITHOUT GROWING WEARY because we are doing it from a place of spiritual confidence in the work of our Savior.⁣
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🌳 Chesterton said once that the Christian faith has not been tried and found wanting, but rather found difficult and not tried. Do not get distracted by offers of a restful Christian lifestyle that somehow make basic Christian obedience seem like works righteousness and shoo you away from it with booing and hissing. Obedience is life giving, strengthening, and wonderful. Faith without works is dead, and spiritually dead is more restful than we should desire to be. 🤣
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🌳 Rest in Christ, forever and always, AMEN. Now get busy LIVING, and WORKING, and STRIVING from that place of rest!

09/06/2022

This is a truth that I have learned to be true in my own life more times than not. I have sat under “hard” preaching that truthfully wasn’t very hard at all. And I have sat under “soft” preaching that’s not actually soft at all. These descriptors were given by the WAY the ideas were presented more than what was actually said.

I learned that the preaching that was loud and “hard” was really not. It was a bunch of extra ideas that the preacher thought we needed to do instead of the Gospel.

The “soft” preaching was usually a preacher who spoke instead of yelled, but the truth they were giving was more truth than the “hard” preaching.

The loud preaching was often a check list of what we needed to do, that most people tuned out as long as it didn’t personally offend them. It was soft truth. Soft truth is non truths, but also it is prequalifying their hard truths too scared to offend any of their congregants.

The “soft” preaching in *alot* of cases (not all) ended up being people who said what the Bible states, unashamedly, and did not apologize or make a thousands excuses. Hard truths are people who will stand on what the Bible says, not qualifying it to be accepted by man. They say things that will hurt and offend people because to be hurt and offended means that you are internalizing what is being said. It means the offended person knows they are wrong in some way.

Hard truths change lives. It hurts people first, sure, but it brings them more quickly to repentance than soft truths. Soft truths allow us to hide from our sin and believe we are okay. Hard truths make us face our sin head on.

The hard truths are still not fun for me to hear, but I see that my heart is softer because of them. We have to learn not to buck against every bad or offended feeling we have. We have to evaluate them. I’m so thankful for those who have given me hard truths.

Soft truths make hard hearts.
Hard truths make soft hearts.

Preach and speak hard truths and make soft hearts.

08/06/2022

We are so often taken away by the philosophies of man, and we do not even realize it.

It is so easy to fall into being so sure that our worldview is Biblical, without actually comparing it to the Bible, the Words of God. We take so much of our culture in and try to make it apart of a biblical worldview, when it is antithetical to the Bible all together.

We must take our deeply held convictions and those lesser held convictions and compare them to the Bible. If it isn’t from God, if you can’t find it in His word, then it is probably not from God, but from the philosophy of man.

We MUST place everything up against the Word of God. We cannot just assume something is true because we were raised believing it, our church teaches it, or our friends believe it. Our church should be teaching us truth, but it’s okay to question it if it doesn’t align with the Bible.

We can sincerely believe something and be sincerely wrong. We have to evaluate our beliefs by God’s Word. We have to be willing to admit if we are wrong and to stand on the Bible when we are right.

Don’t be fooled by the philosophies of men.

07/06/2022

Tip Tuesday!

There truly is nothing lamer than a sermon that isn’t completely about Christ! Is it even a sermon without talking about Him? 🤔

Doug Wilson and his family have been such a help to me. He has such simple statements that absolutely cut me to the core sometimes.

29/05/2022

Your theology, your doctrine, what you really believe about God comes out in our actions. Our words and thoughts should not be divorced from our actions.

My husband and I have this conversation often. We strongly believe that God’s Word should transform your life. For example, we believe the Bible is sufficient for every good work (2nd Tim. 3:16-17). If we claim this with our words, but our actions don’t “prove” that, then we are living in a double minded state (James 1:8). If we don’t live like the Bible is sufficient to teach us how to disciple, how to parent, how to lead, how to spend our money, how to spend our time, etc, then we are saying by our actions that the Bible is NOT sufficient.

Let’s evaluate ourselves today, not look for justifications, but truly evaluate whether our actions line up with our beliefs. What is the primary gear that is running us. For a long time, for me, it was fear. Fear ran my life so I took on every person’s advice and convictions on as my own, and if someone didn’t agree with those, they were wrong. I never shared what I truly believed for a long time due to fear of man. Fear was the main gear running my life. Fear of what would happen, fear of what people thought of me, but not fear of what God thought of me. Sure, I wanted God to be pleased but I based my “biblical life” on being better than the person next to me, never missing church, and “I love God so that’s all that matters and I’m a good person so I’m showing Him my love that way.” While also saying that if I just did what I thought was right and if more people liked me than didn’t, (and what I THOUGHT was Biblical), then that was enough. I was living a Godly life.

I’ve learned in the past 5 years that our actions ARE indicators of what we truly believe. If we believe God is almighty, we will honor Him as so. If we believe He is sovereign ruler over all, then we will worry (or more specifically not worry) as if it were true. If we believe He will save, we will proclaim it with our words and our lives as if it is so.

Examine yourselves today. Is your theology the driving factor of your life? What can you do to change that if not? I know I’m making a list of the things I need to ask God to change in me. I fail so often. Will you join me?

17/04/2022

“When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
‭‭Mark‬ ‭16:1-8‬

15/04/2022

“And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. Now there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, who had not consented to their decision and action; and he was looking for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭23:33-56‬ ‭

13/04/2022

I started blogging again. It's not much, but keeping me busy as I recover. The website also has my podcast connected, and will have a store with my designs on some clothes, stickers, and bags eventually.

https://keepyourpearls.wixsite.com/my-site/post/why-we-do-not-do-the-easter-bunny

I get asked this from time to time, probably not as much as Santa, but it still something that perplexes many people. Originally, it was not a hard stance, it was just something that my husband never did as a child, therefore he did not see the need for it when we started having children. Since then...